Modifying
This article is about changing the files that make up the games, in order to change the game content (vehicles, weapons and just about anything else). with rockets and Miniguns at the Pelabuhan Saudagar harbor.]] Quotes from game developers :"The modding community has always been something spectacular in all games and any game that gets the love of the modding community is already in a good spot. A game that's all about the sandbox - really in a good spot." - An unidentified developer for Just Cause 3. Needs identification (the video interview may be on the JC3 article). :"Everyone here at Avalanche loves the modding community. A lot of us came from the modding community, so there's a lot of will to help it out. Umm... we would love people to continue modding Avalanche games. We think it's an homage to when people are willing to spend their personal time to come up with awesome and crazy ideas and build incredible new systems." - Roland Lesterlin, JC3 game director, in some JC3-related interview. :"We have taken inspiration from some of the mods, that were produced for Just Cause 2, for some of the more crazy ideas that we've put into Just Cause 3" - An unidentified developer for JC3, in the third part of the "developer diary" promotional video series for JC3. :"The modding community took - and it's a complex piece of code - so the fact that people were able to get in there and do what they've been able to do... is really cool. I mean, watching a lot of the mods, I mean, the famous ones, the Superman mods, the infinite grapple mods... You know, the multiplayer guys coming out, trying to figure out how to run the game on a server. All that's an incredible thing to do as modding and some of these guys worked on mods for years to get them to work and that sort of dedication to a game... You have a responsibility to put out a game that allows them to do it again. So I kind of can't wait to see what people do now that we've expanded the toolset so much." - Roland Lesterlin, JC3 game director, in the third part of the "developer diary" promotional video series for JC3. Legal notice *Most modifications require the installation of third party software. **There's no way to be sure if the files you download and/or install will work at all, or if they will turn out to be a computer virus. *Proceed at your own risk. **The Just Cause Wiki will not take any responsibility for any damage to your game; your gaming device, or any legal action that might be taken against you as a result of any end-user license agreement violation. **The content of this article has not been verified by anyone who could take responsibility for damage to your game, or gaming device. *Definitions for the purposes of this notice. **"Modifying the game" is hereby defined as (but not limited to) the following: ***Changing and/or replacing any of the files that make up the game. ***Inserting any files, or code into the games file directory. **"Third party software" is hereby defined as files (or code) that was made by someone other than the company that made the game. **"Gaming device" is hereby defined as any electronic equipment that may be needed to play the game. Examples include and are not limited to: PC; Xbox and PS3. Purpose and mod types It's not that the games wouldn't be fun as they are, but people can always think of ways to improve things. Some improvements might be considered fun by some and terrible by others, so it's all a matter of taste. Some examples of the most common mods (JC2): *Black Market mods are very commonly used. **They change the prices of things (usually to $0). **Let one "buy" (spawn) almost any vehicle that can be seen in the game. **Shut up the black market dealer. *Vehicle weapons. It's possible to add any of the existing kind of Miniguns and helicopter rocket-launchers to any vehicle. **One example is a mod that has added multiple of both to the Pocumtuck Nomad (Agency RV). **Another example is a mod that has added multiple different weapons to the H-62 Quapaw transport helicopter to turn it into a heavy attack helicopter. *Vehicle statistics and handling. It's possible to make vehicles lighter/heavier, faster/slower, be able to drive up very steep hills (and walls), bullet proof, explosion proof and more. *Hand held weapons can also be made more powerful. *The Protec Grappler G3 can be improved so the cable would reach to several kilometers and so that the double-grapple cable would be unbreakable (to allow the towing of heavier objects). *The character model can be replaced to make Rico look different, or pretty much be a different person. *The game environment can be changed to add new islands and roads. This takes a very large amount of work, so large mods like that are relatively rare. *Gameplay can be changed to make the factions fight each-other and/or to make the Panau Military stop fighting you. It's also possible to make it so that the military only uses Happy Bubble Blasters. Just Cause Introduction It is disappointing that Eidos has not included any SDK for its community. However, there have been ways to extract their archives. This article documents as much JC-related modding as possible. Extracting Thanks to the MultiEx community and QuickBMS, extracting the *.ARC files has been made possible. First, locate the folder containing your game Archives. (Its named should be named Archives, for obvious reasons.) Create a new text (.txt) file in that folder, then paste the following code in it: for i = 1 < 0xFFFF get NSIZE long getdstring name nsize get offset long get size long if NSIZE 0 cleanexit endif log name offset size next i Save the file. Now download QuickBMS, and extract it to your Desktop. You may delete the src folder if you want. Double click on quickbms.exe, then for the first part, select the text file you created. For the next part, select one of the archives, from pc1.arc to pc4.arc. Then create another folder to save the extracted content to. Hit "OK", then once it is finished, you have now extracted the content from the game! *.ARC This is an Archive. QuickBMS, along with the script included above, are able to open most of them. (Note that pc0.arc cannot be opened with the above script.) As a reference, these are the first 4 bytes (headers) in the 5 archive files normally included with Just Cause: In fact, pc0 is most likely unopenable due to its unusual header. That, or the header could be indicating a different file format, with which will need a new script. *.DDS Stands for Direct Draw Surface. These files are used with DirectX to apply textures to models. Paint.NET has a plugin if you are looking to convert these to a normal format. Main article: DirectDraw Surface. *.BFSM Still an unknown acronym, these files appear to control how NPCs function. Acronym may stand for "Binary Finite-State Machine" as FSM's are quite common with NPC programming. *.LOD Normally standing for Level Of Detail, these files could be the actual models, containing actual point-by-point info, as well as animations. Main article: Level Of Detail. List of the only known JC1 mods *Two trainers can be downloaded here. *See Myths for the unfinished superman mod that doesn't seem to exist anymore. See Also A Xentax wiki page on Just Cause's ARC file format. Just Cause 2 Using "dropzone" In order to use these, you create a folder in your game directory called dropzone. C:\Program Files\Just Cause 2\dropzone or C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\just cause 2\dropzone Any files placed inside the dropzone directory will override most game content. It is where your mod files should go while creating, tweaking, and testing them. Once the files are placed in there, you're good to go! From there, you can start making your own mods if you want to get that in depth. See Current Tools to get the latest and greatest tools and documentation of each. If you want to redistribute your mod, the easy way to create an .arc/.tab file set is to run the game, then look at the dropzone directory -- you will see separate_files.arc and separate_files.tab, simply copy those elsewhere and rename them appropriate. Be sure you only have your mod files that you want to include in separate_files.arc / separate_files.tab in the dropzone directory at the time, though. Note that the game removes those files when it exits so you need to copy them after the game has started up. Bin Editing Information These links include information on how to edit specific bin files. (using XML to change contents of course) *Vehicle engine modding in Just Cause 2 (vdoll/mvdoll) Field of View It is possible to modify one's field of view. Here are the steps: *1: Right-click Just Cause 2 in your Game Library. *2: Select 'Properties'. *3: In the General tab, select 'Set Runtime Options...' *4: Type in '/fovfactor=x' (without the 's), with x being a number from 1.0 to 2.0 (2.0 giving the highest field of view, 1.0 being the default). *5: Select OK. You can now start the game with an enhanced field of view. It is unknown if the same can be achieved in console versions of the game. How-To *How to mod vehicles. *Converting JC2 .bin mods from PC to 360. *How to mod the JC2 DLC. See also *File types in Avalanche Engine 2.0. *Per-mesh physics attributes. *Small Archive. *DirectDraw Surface. *Avalanche Engine. *Exported Entity. *Vehicle Doll. *Render Block Model. *FMOD. *Level Of Detail. Just Cause 3 Click here for the biggest JC3 modding site. See also: Just Cause 3 Multiplayer. Just Cause 4 Click here for the biggest JC4 modding site. Unlike Just Cause 2 and 3, Just Cause 4 will not have an official multiplayer mod. Gallery Mullen Skeeter Eagle (modified).jpg|A modified Mullen Skeeter Eagle with rockets and Miniguns at the Pelabuhan Saudagar harbor. UH-10 Chippewa (unarmed and no rotor).jpg|The helicopter is a glitched version of the UH-10 Chippewa, but Ricos character model has been replaced. Missing water tower mod.jpg|One mod adds the missing water tower and collectable items, which makes 100% completion possible. Air Propulsion Gun.jpg|Ricos character model has been replaced by a mod. Kem Komander Sutherland.png|Kem Komander Sutherland as seen from a modified H-62 Quapaw. Field of view.jpg|The result of setting field of view to 2.0. This is at Karl Blaine's Residence. Garret Traver-Z (modified).png|A Garret Traver-Z, modified for use in the Panau Police mod. Si-47 Leopard (modified paint).png|A modified Si-47 Leopard with custom paint. Ricos character model has also been replaced. JC2-MP Kane model.png|Maria Kane character model in use in Just Cause 2 Multiplayer. Category:Modding Category:Content Category:Gameplay Category:File Formats